OhTheBill has been my online name since the beginning of the internet. This is my personal sounding board. I publish the things that are important to me, and sometimes stories about my life.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

You Are Beautiful Just the Way You Are And It Gets Better

After attending Bukeka's Reality Show Concert I went home and couldn't fall asleep. She is so amazing and the concert was nothing less than astounding. Her rendition of her original songs was amazing, but brought me to tears was her version of "You're Beautiful". I told her I was doing my best to take the video but she'd probably hear me sniffling and weeping in the background. It really was amazing. I don't know what other adjectives I can use to really describe the experience. The place was packed and this was the first step-out of the church box concert for her. I think she was very happy with the result. I took as much video as I possibly could and the westport coffeehouse people took a video of the entire thing, so we'll be looking for that on vimeo.

Friday day I get on facebook and I see this announcement from the chorus: We are thrilled to announce (and our FB fans are the very first to know) that Dan Savage, founder of the "It Gets Better" project, will be joining us this spring to narrate our concert "When I Knew." So amazing! Here's is a NPR story about the book that will be the subject of our concert.

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last ten years or so Dan Savage is a sex advice columnist who writes a column called "Savage Love" that appears in Seattle's The Stranger and reprinted all around the country. In Kansas City if you look in the back few pages of the Pitch, you'll see his column. I have taken to not only reading his column but also listening to "Savage Lovecast" his weekly podcast. It's always hysterical, and you learn something most every episode.

So kudos to HMC, for literally being on the front lines of this issue and helping gay youth get through their tumultuous lives. It Gets Better was only created last year. During that time there has been videos from Dan and his (boyfriend in the US, husband in Canada), Terry. Also from the flipping President of the United States, other celebrities but also other regular people who have made these videos in support of gay youth basically saying...we know it's hard during these years when you're in school...but for all the taunts, and all the teasing that happens in the school rooms and in the hallways of school....it DOES get better. Check out Obama's video below and get your tickets early for "When I Knew" because I don't think there will ever be a concert like this one. I can promise, not even hearing the notes or seeing the script that Savage is going to narrate, it will change your life in ways you can't even imagine now.